Fatcat FTSE 100 Chiefs Earn £4m a Year, £1,000 an Hour… And £18 a Minute

The bosses of Britain's top business earned £4.3m on average last year – meaning they have already taken home more money in 2014 than the average worker will earn in the entire year.

According to think-tank the High Pay Centre, earnings for company executives returning to work this Monday will pass the UK average salary of £26,500 ($43,528, €31,978) by mid-morning on "Fatcat Wednesday".

The research body also found FTSE 100 chief executives wages equate to about £1,100 an hour – or £18.30 per minute.

"'Fatcat Wednesday highlights how insensitive big company executives have become," said Deborah Hargreaves, director of the High Pay Centre.

She added: "When top bosses take home more in two and a half days than the average worker earns in a year, there is clearly something wrong with the way pay is set for both bosses and workers."

The organisation said executive pay has increased by a whopping 74% over the past decade, while wages for ordinary workers have remained flat.

In fact, average weekly earnings are growing at a measly 0.8% per year against consumer price inflation of 2.1% and the National Minimum Wage currently stands at £6.31 per hour – an amount a FTSE100 boss will top after just 30 seconds of work.

"Soaring pay inequality, with top bosses now taking home more in a few days than most workers earn in a year, is damaging our economy," said Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

"Workers need better pay rises so that the recovery is built on growing incomes, rather than falling savings and mounting household debts. But Britain's fat cat bosses are hoarding earnings owed to staff for shareholders and themselves. That's why we need workers on remuneration committees to knock some sense into top bosses' pay."

The figures from the High Pay Centre come among the political debate over the so-called "cost of living crisis".